Kerry Weaver
Kerry Weaver is one of the show's main characters; she has the 2nd most episode under her belt right behind Dr. John Carter. She first appeared as a recurring character in Season 2 before becoming a regular in Season 3. She left the show during Season 13 but also appeared in two episodes of Season 15. An accomplished ER doctor, Kerry is also a dedicated administrator fueled by ambition. This led her to be an opportunist and to backstab her colleagues when she saw a chance for advancement, such as her rivalry with Dr. Mark Greene. However, she was shown to be a very caring and kind woman who would sometimes break the rules that she set up to help her patients. Dr. Greene’s parting words to Kerry are “Never let your work become your life. Live a little”. Following his death, Weaver begins to focus more on her personal life. She first goes public with her relationship with Sandy Lopez at after-hour drinks celebrating Greene in "The Letter." Kerry then takes time off to go to Barbados. In Season 9, she admits to taking hormones to Dr. Lewis, and eventually becomes pregnant with a boy. Sandy and Kerry move in together. When Haleh notices blood on Kerry’s coat after a trauma, Abby walks in on Weaver performing a sonogram on herself. They discover Kerry has lost the baby at 14 weeks. In season 10's "NICU," Abbey enters a delivery room where Kerry is with Sandy, who gives birth to a baby boy. Kerry first arrived as the new ER Chief Resident. She started to rise swiftly through the ranks first as an Attending Physician in Emergency Medicine, Chief of Emergency Medicine and Hospital Chief of Staff. However, after an incident that caused her to be reassigned to the ER as an Attending, she realized that her career in medicine was over and leaves for Florida with her new partner, Courtney, who was also her producer on the medical news program that she joined. Kerry's main storyline came when she was revealed to be a closeted lesbian. She was forced out when her partner, Sandy Lopez, kissed her in front of the ER. She then accepted herself as a lesbian but it earned her abuse at the hands of Dr. Robert Romano and is a main point in her battle to keep her son, Henry. ER Career Kerry was hired as the new ER Chief Resident by Attending Mark Greene. This caused much displeasure within the ER staff, notably on the part of residents Susan Lewis and Doug Ross. Her strong leadership style was sometimes considered harsh by some and was much disliked. Also, during this time, it was hard to see Kerry as being anything else than a tough and bureaucratic professional and very little of her personal life was ever shown to the staff. All that was known about her was that she was a very good doctor who wanted to succeed professionally and that she was often conflicted between her desire to help people and her dedication to administrative procedures. Among Kerry's many mysteries was the limp that required her to use an arm crutch. Though many within the ER were curious about what forced her to use this crutch and about her limp, it remained a complete mystery until she revealed the congenital hip displacement to her mother in Season 11. In Season 3, Kerry is promoted to be an ER Attending alongside Mark Greene. This was the beginning of a long friendly rivalry between the two over several positions within the ER. Also, during this time, Mark discovered that Jeanie Boulet, a Physician's Assistant, was HIV-positive. Kerry was the first to defend Jeanie and fought Mark so that she could keep her job. Later, Dr. Donald Anspaugh, the Hospital Chief of Staff, let Jeanie keep her job with measures of precaution put in place. After this, her and Mark who had come to terms with Jeanie drafted a paper on ER policy concerning employees with HIV or AIDS. Later, however, Kerry was forced to fire Jeanie because of budget reasons. Jeanie fought for her job and used her HIV-status to that end. It caused a great strain on their friendship for a while after this. However, when Jeanie left in Season 6, they were good friends again. During Season 4, while Mark was in California, Kerry suffered a seizure from poisonous fumes that had been freed in the ER. Drs. Carter and Del Amico treated her. Due to Kerry's inability to take care of things, Carter took charge in the ER and supervised the following evacuation. This led Kerry to have more respect for Carter. In Season 5, when Carter was fired from his RA job, he followed an ad for renting an apartment that led him to Kerry's house. Having been the only staff member to have always gotten along well with her, Carter moved into her house and the two shared a closer relationship than before. Chief of Emergency Medicine Professional advancement Rise to Chief of the ER At the beginning of Season 4, Dr. David Morgenstern, the Chief of Surgery & Emergency Medicine, suffered a heart attack and was forced to take a leave of absence. Kerry was chosen to be acting chief of the ER until he returned. Later on in the season, Morgenstern resigned after having made a mistake in surgery. Kerry pushed to become the permanent chief at the beginning of Season 5. However, she was passed over in favor of Dr. Amanda Lee. Lee was later revealed to be a con artist and Anspaugh offered her the position of acting chief again. She refused because she knew she wouldn't be chosen as permanent chief. However, Dr. Robert Romano, the new Chief of Surgery, jumped at the opportunity and became the new acting Chief of Emergency Medicine. At the beginning of Season 6, a rumor reached the ER that Dr. Anspaugh was quitting as Chief of Staff and that Romano was first in line to take his place. Determined to prevent this, Kerry and Mark planned to tell Anspaugh and the hospital's senior doctors how Romano was running the ER. However, at the last minute, Kerry back-stabbed Mark and backed Romano for the job. To thank her, he promoted her to permanent chief. This lead to a period of tension and conflict between her and Mark. The hiring of Gabriel Lawrence Her first act as chief was to hire her former mentor, Dr. Gabriel Lawrence, as the ER Senior Attending. He proved to be a very talented doctor and a was well liked by everyone. However, he had some weird behavior that led him to loose his cool during a major trauma and forgetting what labs he had ordered. Mark and med student Lucy Knight were the only ones who realized this but were turned away by Kerry and Carter respectively. Later, it was revealed that Lawrence was in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. After Mark staged a fake scene with a fake patient, he was forced to accept his disease and he retired after saving one last patient. Kerry was very shaken to see her role model leave all that he had ever loved. Lucy Knight's death Early in Season 6, med student Lucy Knight had asked Kerry to be her mentor and Kerry had accepted. However, after her promotion to chief, she had to turn Lucy down due to the fact that she didn't want to encourage favoritism. Despite this, Kerry stayed on good terms with her as was everyone else in the ER. In the episode Be Still My Heart, Carter and Lucy were stabbed by a schizophrenic patient and Kerry found them in critical condition. The ER and Surgery staffs united in their efforts to save their friends. While Drs. Kovac and Benton worked on Carter, Kerry and Dr. Elizabeth Corday tried to save Lucy. Kerry cracked open Lucy's chest so that they could stabilize her. After succeeding and getting the two up to the OR, Kerry threw up at what she had to do to her friend. Drs. Anspaugh and Benton were able to save Carter but, despite their best efforts, Romano and Elizabeth were unable to save Lucy. While Nurse Chuny Marquez told the staff about her death, Kerry joined Dr. Romano in closing up Lucy. After this, she covered the young woman with a sheet despite Romano telling her that a nurse could do it. Later on, in the season finale, Carter was revealed to be addicted to painkillers since his attack and Lucy's death. Realizing that Carter was struggling with pain and survivor's guilt, Mark, Kerry, Benton, Anspaugh, Dr. Jing-Mei Chen and med student Abby Lockhart arranged for him to leave for a rehab center in Atlanta or to be fired. Carter furiously denied the accusations and, when caught, he resigned. Thanks to Benton however, he left for Atlanta. Arousing troubles During Season 7, Kerry had to deal with several troubles within the ER including Carter's recent return from the Atlanta rehab facility, the aftermath of Mark Greene's brain tumor operation and, most notably, her feelings for Dr. Kim Legaspi. Carter's return After several months of rehab, Carter returns to the ER. Mark and Kerry set up a series of rules that he would have to follow and prevent him from working on traumas. After sometime, Carter is given more freedom in the ER and seems to be getting back to his old self. However, after having had very little rest in a day and a night, he takes Vicodin. After realizing his mistake and vomiting the medicine, he tells Kerry about his slip. Despite allowing him to stay, Kerry pulled him away from prescribing narcotics and told him that if he slipped again, he would be fired. She also made no attempt to hide her disappointment. However, despite a rough moment, Carter finally returned to his old self and no longer required supervision. However, after what had happened to him, Kerry was forced to refuse his application for Chief Resident. Mark Greene's brain tumor After suffering a seizure in the ER, Mark revealed to Carter (who had been with him at the time) that he had a brain tumor and that it was inoperable. He later told his fiancée, Elizabeth, and they went together to New York to seek a second opinion. Before leaving, he told Kerry and the staff about his tumor. On New Year's Eve, Dr. Burke, a worldwide known surgeon, operated on Mark and removed the tumor. However, after returning to the ER, Mark showed differences in his personality and sometimes said the wrong word like saying "she" instead of "he." In the view of this and of Mark's new brusqueness with patients, Kerry had him evaluated for professional competency. This made Elizabeth furious and, though Mark passed, they didn't invite her to their wedding. Though Mark and Kerry make up later, Elizabeth remained very unfriendly to her until Season 10. Relationship with Kim During Season 7, Kerry started to work closely with Dr. Kim Legaspi, a psychiatrist, who was an open lesbian. They became close friends and Kim started to take a romantic interest in Kerry. However, she mistook Kerry's attention for simple friendship and tried to break off their relationship outside the professional scene. But Kerry, who realized that she had fallen in love with Kim, told her the truth and they spent their first night together. Despite their new relationship, Kerry was still in the closet and asked Kim to keep the relationship a secret. This caused tension and they eventually broke up. However, Kerry shows signs that she still loves Kim and wants to help her whenever she can. At the end of the season, Dr. Romano, who was a staunch homophobe, tried to have Kim fired by bringing up bogus charges. Kerry, outraged at Romano's actions, tries to convince Kim to fight him. But she refuses as she "doesn't want to work in a place that doesn't accept her". Kerry continues to try and change Romano's mind and starts to confide in Dr. Luka Kovac about this. Understanding Kerry's feelings, Luka keeps her secret and makes her realize the true depth of her feelings for Kim. When Romano fires Kim in the middle of the ER, Kerry confronts him and comes out to him. Shocked, he decides not to fire Kim. However, her act of courage emotionally drains her and she is unable to provide emotional support to Kim. The latter leaves to work in a hospital in California and, to Kerry's great surprise, Romano decides to keep her secret. Coming out of the closet and ER conflict Pager incident After a trip to Africa so as to forget her troubles, Kerry comes back to the ER. In the second episode of Season 8, Drs. Chen and Malucci fail to correctly diagnose a patient. After Carter realizes their mistake, they page Kerry three times. Carter runs to get her at Doc Magoo's (sustaining a painful blow to his injured back in the process) and she arrives to announce that they cannot save the patient. She gets into an argument with Malucci over this and tells him that, even in a perfect life, she wouldn't leave any patients in his care. After this, she returns to Doc Magoo's where she had lost her pager in the toilet. Desperate to cover up her mistake, Kerry fires Malucci when she finds him having sex with a paramedic. Malucci fights for his job and Mark tells Kerry that "if she fired everyone because she didn't get along with them, she'd have to fire all of them". Later, she strips Chen of the Chief Residency (she then offers the job to Carter) and manages to pin the malpractice suit on the two. Chen later quits when Kerry doesn't provide good support to her. This also leads to Mark hiring Susan Lewis once again as an ER Attending. Later, Chen tells Dr. Romano that she knew why Kerry didn't answer her page and he forces her to give Chen an Attending's position. Chen tries to pin the blame on Kerry so that she wouldn't have to report back to her. Kerry counters this by saying that, if Chen had been capable of handling the situation, she wouldn't have needed her. This ends Chen's bossy and arrogant attitude towards her. Meeting Sandy Lopez When an ambulance crashes due to a heavy storm, Kerry and med student Michael Gallant go to the scene to help a pregnant woman trapped in the ambulance. There, she meets firefighter Lieutenant Sandy Lopez. Lopez does not let herself be impressed by Kerry's authority and vainly tries to control her. Kerry and Gallant successfully save the woman and her baby. This action leads Kerry to respect both Gallant and Lopez who did impressive work. Lopez, in turn, developed a great deal of respect for Kerry. When Sandy comes to the ER for a cut hand, Kerry sutures her and asks her out. They spend the night together and start to grow close. However, Sandy soon learns that Kerry is in the closet and refuses to keep dating. After learning that Sandy was missing, Kerry calls her and asks her to come to the ER. There, after an argument, Sandy kisses Kerry, finally pulling her out of the closet. Furious, Kerry yells at Sandy who yells back that she "did her a favor". A few episodes later, Kerry finally accepts her lifestyle and makes up to Sandy. They start a new relationship and even make ER-social appearances. Mark's death During Season 8, Mark's tumor regrows and is, this time, truly inoperable. He keeps this a secret from everyone, except his close friend Susan Lewis, and keeps working. However, after having had a round of chemotherapy, he decides to go home and stuns the entire ER when he tells Kerry (who had refused him) why. The entire staff band together to help him but he rebuffs their help and later stops his treatment and quits. Kerry is one of the two, along with Carter, to whom he tells that he is. Two episodes later, a letter arrives to the ER from Hawaii written by Mark. After, it is revealed that Elizabeth sent the letter and that Mark was dead. Kerry loses her cool for the first time and breaks down in front of the ER. She later admits to Sandy that, despite their year-long rivalry, Mark had been her friend. She seen again crying at his funeral among all his friends and colleagues. She then tells Carter that, since he was the doctor who had been at County the longest, others would look up to him for leadership. Chief of Staff Slow rise to Chief ER lockdown and Romano's accident During the Season 8 finale, Carter orders an ER lockdown when two children come in with what appears to be smallpox. Kerry is locked out and forced to do an outside trauma when a patient arrives. Later, she is seen supervising the hospital evacuation and calls in Dr. Anspaugh when she is told that Romano lost his left arm in a helicopter rotor. When it is revealed that it isn't smallpox but monkeypox, the hospital is once again opened. Anspaugh names Kerry acting Chief of Staff until Romano recovers. However, her new administrative duties make her butt heads with many in the ER, including Carter. When an armed man comes into the ER and demands painkillers, he requires that more security be given to the ER workers. When Kerry refuses due to budgetary reasons, Carter leads the entire ER on a strike and Kerry finally gives in to his demands. The Alderman and promotion After Romano takes his job back, Kerry treats an alderman who is revealed to have syphilis. At his request, she conceals his illness which leads the alderman to have her promoted and give County additional funding.He later forces her to test his closeted-gay lover which ends in the lover's death due to an allergic reaction to penicillin. After this tragic episode, Dr. Anspaugh calls Kerry and Romano to a meeting. Since losing his arm and his ability to do surgery, Romano has grown increasingly bitter and started to neglect his job. Anspaugh says the Board has had enough and that they have come to a compromise: a sharing of the duties with one of the senior doctors. The Board chose Kerry to be co-Chief of Staff. Romano refused. Anspaugh then fired him and gave Kerry the job. The Romano ER and having a child After being promoted to Chief of Staff, Kerry gave Romano a choice: to stay or leave. He decides to stay and becomes the new Chief of Emergency Medicine. Many in the ER start to regret Kerry's leadership and Carter tries desperately to sooth the tension between the staff and Romano. After having had his arm amputated at the end of Season 9, he returns to the ER very unwelcome. He still butts heads with Kerry and later fires Drs. Pratt and Morris. However, in the same episode, he is killed by a helicopter that crashes in the ambulance bay. Though Elizabeth Corday and several others mourn for him and that most are saddened by his death, Kerry isn't at all. She later tells Elizabeth that Romano would still be missed, whether they knew it or not. During Season 9, Sandy and Kerry made the decision to have a child. Kerry first attempted to carry the baby via in vitro fertilization (IVF) but miscarried a while later. She tells Sandy that she wants Sandy to carry the baby because she is younger and will thus have a better chance. Sandy refuses at first but later changes her mind. In Season 10, she gives birth to a son, Henry. Later in Season 10, Sandy dies after having sustained life-threatening injuries while fighting a fire in an abandoned building, leaving Kerry heartbroken. The Lopez family, who have continuously been seen as disapproving of Sandy and Kerry's relationship and lifestyle, take custody of Henry and forbid Kerry from seeing him. Kerry sues them for custody and they finally reach a compromise: Kerry will have primary custody while the Lopez family take care of Henry when she is at work. Meeting her mother During Season 11, a woman comes to the ER. Her name is Helen Kingsley and she is Kerry's biological mother. After years of search, Kerry finally learns the answers she was looking for. Her mother tells her that she was fifteen years old when Kerry was born and that she couldn't take care of her. She gave her up for adoption because she knew that she would have a better life than with her. However, when Helen learns that Kerry is a lesbian, they clash over this. Kerry insists that she should accept and love her for who she was. Helen said that she couldn't accept her lifestyle as it went against her religious beliefs but that she could and would always love her. This episode also ends the mystery behind Kerry's limp. When Helen asks her about her crutch, she tells her that she has a congenital hip dysplasia, a birth defect. Kerry also said that she had long feared that the defect was why she had been given up for adoption. Helen reassures her that, disabled or not, all of "God's children are perfect." Losing her job Losing her limp During Season 12, Kerry's hip started to cause her pain after she slipped in the ambulance bay. After a lengthy internal struggle with whether or not she wanted to have surgery to correct her hip and dispel her of her life-long disability, Kerry finally decided to undergo a total hip replacement because she was no longer able to keep up with her work in the ER or her toddler son, Henry. The Clemente Incident In Season 12, Kerry hires Dr. Victor Clemente as a new ER Attending. From the start, he got along badly with most of the staff, particularly Luka, the new Chief of Emergency Medicine, and Pratt. In the episode "Quintessence of Dust," Clemente and his girlfriend, Jodie, came in after being shot by Jodie's police officer husband. At the time, the ER staff believed he was guilty of the shooting. He finally was fired when he compromised patient care and opened the hospital for lawsuits. Kerry tried to divert the fire towards Luka who was put on the firing line by Dr. Anspaugh. In the beginning of Season 13, Kerry arrives in the ER after the shooting carried out by Samantha Taggart's ex. She frees a trapped Luka and finds Jerry and a pregnant Abby in critical condition. After managing to stabilize Abby, she is sent up to the OR to have C-section to save her child. After Abby and Luka's son, Joe, is born, Kerry tells Anspaugh the truth about the Clemente incident. Anspaugh demotes her from her position as Chief of Staff to an Attending in the ER. Departure ER Attending After losing her Chief of Staff position, Kerry struggles to adjust, especially with having Luka as her new boss. However, she seems happy to be practicing medicine full-time again. It is during this time that she catches the eye of a TV crew filming a news segment with Dr. Morris. She literally steals the show and is soon offered a job by the film producers. Season 15 Category:Characters Category:Doctors Category:ER staff